_620x349.jpg?ar=16%3A9&fit=crop&crop=top&auto=format&w=1440&q=80)
It’s the most wonderful time of the year… unless you’re the anti-Christmas protestors from Tokyo who marched through the city on Saturday.
The protest group, who call themselves ‘Losers with Women’, are taking to the streets because they feel that Christmas is little more than a cynical capitalist ploy that discriminates against single people.
In a show of support for all the single guys out there, the group of 20, mostly single, men – who are part of a Communist-inspired group that regularly protests Western holidays – marched under banners that read ‘Smash Christmas!’ in the city's Shibuya district.
The head of the organisation, formerly known as Kakumei-Teki Himote Doumei, or the Revolutionary Losers’ League, said 'in this world, money is extracted from people in love, and happy people support capitalism.’
He added that ‘Christmas is the most symbolic event for this’.
In Japan, although lights and decorations do go up, Christmas is not a traditional celebration, nor is it a national holiday. It is mostly celebrated in an informal way, with gift giving.
New Year (shogatsu or oshogatsu), however, is a national holiday. It is the most important holiday in Japan. Most businesses shut down from January 1 to January 3 and the emphasis is on families gathering and spending the time together.
The protest's leader, who identified himself only by the pseudonym MarkWater, said that the rally was also a show of support for unloved men out there.
‘Unpopular men, who don’t have a girlfriend or are not married, are overly discriminated. We want to break this barrier,’ he told AFP amid the shouting protestors.
The group have also held marches to denounce Valentine’s Day, which they see as another example of imported Western commercialism, in the past.
Like this? You might also be interested in:
Bark, Rags And Newspapers; This Is What Periods Look Like Around The World
Follow Vicky on Twitter @Victoria_Spratt
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.